Stanford Report launches redesigned web
page, new URL

Stanford Report on Wednesday launched a
redesigned web page with a new URL,
http://news.stanford.edu, aimed at highlighting
the site's daily offerings of news, photos and
graphics.

"With our redesign, we want to make Stanford
Report online a more integral part of the
daily lives of faculty, staff, students and our
broader audiences," said Eileen Walsh,
director of Stanford News Service. "We hope
that readers will make it a habit to log on every
day to learn the latest news about research,
teaching and campus events. With that in mind, we
plan to update the site throughout the day as
news warrants."

Stanford Report's website was
originally designed in early 1997 as a way to
post online the weekly contents of the Stanford
Report newspaper. Since spring of 1999,
however, during the academic year the website has
served as a vehicle to deliver news on a daily
basis.

"Three and a half years ago is a long
time on the web," said Andy Krackov, web
managing editor. "Since then, there's a lot
we've learned about how to design an online
publication." The old web page design, he
said, "was buckling under, in the sense that
our design did not permit us to highlight both
breaking news and stories of ongoing
significance. I think our new design accomplishes
those goals."

The new web design has multiple headlines on
the home page, allowing readers to see not only
the latest news on a daily basis but also recent
top stories. In addition, a space is reserved in
the right-hand corner to emphasize feature
stories, photo slideshows and video clips. With
technological innovations in digital photography
and videography, posting images to the website
has become easier and faster. For example, two
video clips from an interview with Paul Ehrlich
on his new book, Human Natures: Genes,
Cultures and the Human Prospect, recently
were posted to the site and have proven popular
with users.

A new navigation bar on the left side of the
page gives users of the site many more categories
to choose from so that they can get to the news
they want with fewer clicks. In addition, the
story-level pages have been enhanced with more
related links, photos and graphics.

The home page retains several features, such
as an item highlighting a daily event on campus
and "Stanford in the News," which gives
readers a selection of news media stories quoting
Stanford professors.

Finally, the website's new name, http://news.stanford.edu,
is "something that we hope people will
remember easily," Krackov said.

The editor of the website is James Robinson,
assistant director of the News Service. The
assistant web editor is Libusha Kelly.

Feedback on the redesigned site should be
directed to krackov@stanford.edu.